airplane

An interview with Emma Rancour, a former Rosie the Riveter from the Willow Run bomber plant.

There's a song from 1942 written by Red Evans and John Jacob Loeb that celebrates one of the most important groups to emerge on the home front in World War Two.

Collectively known as "Rosie the Riveter," women covered their hair with bandanas and picked up their tools to work in war production in factories all across America.

One of the most important plants in the war effort was the Willow Run bomber plant in Ypsilanti Township. Henry Ford built it to make B-24 bombers. 8, 685 bombers rolled off the assembly line at Willow Run during the war.

Emma Rancour was one of those Rosie the Riveters who worked at Willow Run. She installed radios in the flight decks of those Liberators.

These days, Emma Rancour lives in South Lyon. She joined us today to talk about her time at the plant.

The old GM Willow Run assembly plant, the same plant where Rosie the Riveter once worked, is in danger of being demolished. That is, unless the Yankee Air Museum can raise $4.5 million dollars in the next 15 days, as Tracy Samilton reported.

The museum hopes to use the old plant to house its collection of exhibits and historic planes.

One of these planes is the B-17G "Yankee Lady," a bomber developed for the United States Air Force during World War II. The Yankee Lady is one of the few remaining models of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers that remain flyable today.

Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton and Alana Holland got to experience first hand this historic plane in action. View the slideshow above for a look at the Yankee Lady in flight.

With the touch of a button, a massive two-story-tall bay door opens slowly, as an insistent alarm sounds, to reveal part of the former Willow Run bomber plant near Ypsilanti, Michigan. A heavy waft of must and dampness rushes out from the dark interior.

Once, scores of B-24 bombers exited these bay doors, on their way to aid the American war effort.

"It works better than my garage door back home," says Grant Trigger with a grin, as the more than 60-year-old doors lift.

Trigger is the Michigan Cleanup Manager for RACER Trust, which handles the vacant GM Willow Run Assembly Plant, along with scores of other properties abandoned by the automaker as part of its bankruptcy reorganization in 2009.

The factory began its life as a Ford Motor Company World War II factory, famous for being the place where Rosie the Riveter worked. GM later bought the plant and converted it to make automobiles.

But soon it will be demolished, unless a modest museum can raise more than $4.5 million in the next 15 days.

Two Southwest Airlines planes struck each other while leaving adjacent gates at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz says no one was hurt when the planes' winglets collided Saturday morning.

Both jets returned to their gates, and all passengers and crew got off.

Mike Conway is an airport spokesman. He says baggage handling workers alerted security officials after a box containing electronic equipment and loose wiring entered the building. The box was being moved from one airplane to another.

Conway says the security officials closed 8 gates in the McNamara Terminal while they investigated the box.

“The area below that is where the nuts and bolts where all the processing of all the luggage, packages and stuff like occur…this package was on a belt…in the bag makeup area for that section of gates.’"

Conway says the box did not originate in Detroit. He says the shipper is being contacted.

Airport spokesman Mike Conway says the box was found about 7:15 a.m. Tuesday and passengers were removed from part of Concourse B at the McNamara Terminal out of "an abundance of caution." Conway says planes that were to use gates at the concourse were using other gates at the airport. The concourse at the airport in Romulus primarily is used by regional aircraft.

He says details about why security officials determined the box to be suspicious weren't immediately available.